Adopted by Caucasian parents, biracial teen Lizzie feels like she never belonged. After the death of her father, Lizzie starts acting out — dating, staying away from home for days and giving up her plans to continue her education. When Lizzie discovers she is pregnant, she is faced with the difficult choice of having a child or getting an abortion. This leads Lizzie to want to find her own birth mother. After running away from home, Lizzie ends up in Kingston, where she tracks down an older woman named Ruth who sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Lizzie's birth.
This novel is based on real-life experiences and events in small town Nova Scotia and Toronto. The story recounts how a 15-year-old Black girl finds herself beaten, emotionally abused, sold to a pimp, and working in the sex trade. 15-year-old Kanika lives a sheltered life with her aunt in Guysborough, a small town in Nova Scotia. But that all changes when her best friend disappears after hanging out with some older boys. While trying to find out what happened, Kanika gets the attention of Danny, an older teen she has always found attractive. After establishing that Kanika is his "ride or die chick" and will do anything for him, Danny sells her into the sex trade. Kanika is raped and taken to Toronto, where she finds her friend has been a victim of the same sex trafficking plot. The two girls experience the hard and dangerous life of sex workers. Kanika never gives up her plans to escape. With help and strength given by an older girl who is a sex worker by choice, Kanika gets away from the people abusing her and makes her way home.
In 1921, prominent lawyer and Nova Scotia Black leader James R. Johnston’s vision of a place welcoming of Black children came to reality. In an era of segregation and overt racism that saw most orphanages refuse to take in Black children, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children fulfilled an important role. But despite its good intentions, today the Home is mostly known for a troubling past. Former residents launched a class action lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered at the Home over a period of several decades. In The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children: The Hurt, The Hope, and The Healing, author Wanda Taylor interviews former residents participating in the lawsuit and upcoming public inquiry and connects their stories to her own relationship with the Home. The former residents in this book provide an unsettling, and sometimes graphic, description of what life was like inside the Home and describe the many ways the government system designed to protect them instead exacerbated a culture of abuse and neglect.
This novel is based on real-life experiences and events in small town Nova Scotia and Toronto. The story recounts how a 15-year-old Black girl finds herself beaten, emotionally abused, sold to a pimp, and working in the sex trade. 15-year-old Kanika lives a sheltered life with her aunt in Guysborough, a small town in Nova Scotia. But that all changes when her best friend disappears after hanging out with some older boys. While trying to find out what happened, Kanika gets the attention of Danny, an older teen she has always found attractive. After establishing that Kanika is his "ride or die chick" and will do anything for him, Danny sells her into the sex trade. Kanika is raped and taken to Toronto, where she finds her friend has been a victim of the same sex trafficking plot. The two girls experience the hard and dangerous life of sex workers. Kanika never gives up her plans to escape. With help and strength given by an older girl who is a sex worker by choice, Kanika gets away from the people abusing her and makes her way home.
Adopted by Caucasian parents, biracial teen Lizzie feels like she never belonged. After the death of her father, Lizzie starts acting out — dating, staying away from home for days and giving up her plans to continue her education. When Lizzie discovers she is pregnant, she is faced with the difficult choice of having a child or getting an abortion. This leads Lizzie to want to find her own birth mother. After running away from home, Lizzie ends up in Kingston, where she tracks down an older woman named Ruth who sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Lizzie's birth.
“A history and a testimonial towards healing” of the hundreds of African-Nova Scotian orphans who suffered abuse and neglect at the government’s hands (The Coast). In 1921, prominent lawyer and Nova Scotia Black leader James R. Johnston’s vision of a place welcoming of Black children came to reality. In an era of segregation and overt racism that saw most orphanages refuse to take in Black children, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children fulfilled an important role. But despite its good intentions, today the Home is mostly known for a troubling past. Former residents launched a class action lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered at the Home over a period of several decades. In The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children: The Hurt, The Hope, and The Healing, author Wanda Taylor interviews former residents participating in the lawsuit and upcoming public inquiry and connects their stories to her own relationship with the Home. The former residents in this book provide an unsettling, and sometimes graphic, description of what life was like inside the Home and describe the many ways the government system designed to protect them instead exacerbated a culture of abuse and neglect.
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